Rafael Nadal

The thing, when you’re down two sets to love, is to stay calm, even though it’s hard, because people are freaking out, people are worried for you.

I’ve stayed calm when I’m winning and I’ve stayed calm when I’ve lost. Tennis is a sport where we have a lot of tournaments every week, so you can’t celebrate a lot when you have big victories, and you cannot get too down when you’re losing, as in a few days you’ll be in the next tournament and you’ll have to be ready with that.

I always work with a goal – and the goal is to improve as a player and a person. That, finally, is the most important thing of all.

I will do as I usually do. Tomorrow is going to be a day like any other day.

If I am not playing at one hundred percent, it is going to be very difficult for me to win.

I didn’t play a great match, but once I pass the first two rounds, things get easier. I’m used to the court and the conditions.

Of all the follies the elder generation falls victim to this is the most foolish, namely, the constant criticism of the younger element who will not be and cannot be like ourselves because we and they are different tribes produced of different elements in the great spirit of Time.

Man is what he believes.

Trouble with the world today is people don’t go to children enough. I don’t like old people. I stay away from them.

They said eyes are the key to the soul, and after looking into yours, I know you’ve unlocked mine.

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.

What’s wrong with being a boring kind of guy?

Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.

Like an enemy I knew as intimately as any friend, I came to know the nagging, constant emptiness of the incongruent life. I ignored myself and lived for people, purposes, and goals that weren’t my own. I betrayed who I was and instead accepted a fictional substitute that was defined from the outside in.

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possesion, a duty.

Think about all of the times, situations, and circumstances where you have gotten caught up in making your self right rather than happy… The harder you fight to win, the bigger you lose.

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

Everything has its limit – iron ore cannot be educated into gold.

Man is a comparative being. Substandard things must go before super-standard things can come.

You are so much more than what people have done to you, and to let that define you, would be a tragedy.

Trees are among the most useful things grown.